Monday, February 23, 2015

Montolieu Campground

As we have seen many times before; it’s not the campground or the facilities but the people operating it which make for an enjoyable stay… or not. At Montolieu we were welcomed with open arms by Fradier. She enjoys operating a campground and it shows. Have you ever seen the owner of a campground happily humming a song while she’s on her way to clean the toilet block? Fradier does. She just wants her guests to be happy.

The 'welcome' feeling started right at the check-in when she charged just 10 Euros for two and 13.5 for three persons, which by European standards is just plain cheap. No extra charges for an extra tent, no extra charges for a motorcycle or any other such nonsense: you pay for the spot and that’s it. With the previous camping experience still clear in our minds we didn't expect much for such a minimal outlay. Guess what? We were wrong! Showers are free as is power. Try that anywhere else in Europe on a regular commercial campground! And before you start; the toilets and showers are first class too, there are sinks to do the dishes (complete with sink plugs!) and the campground has level, grassy and secluded spots.

Grassy, level and secluded spots, a very friendly owner and first class showers and toilets and even room to wash your dishes... what more could one possibly ask for?

She apologised for not having much 'to do' for kids as there is no pool, no game room, no playground... Great! We don't need that. Fradier seems to attract friendly guests too as we met quite a few friendly campers there. We were pleasantly surprised, and as we were to find out things became even better! As we arrived on Saturday afternoon and hadn’t done any shopping yet, we were in trouble food-wise. France is pretty much closed on Sunday… especially rural France. When we asked where the nearest supermarket was which would be open on a Sunday, Fradier offered to cook for us! What a lovely lady! We stayed two extra nights, one to just have a rest on the Sunday and the next to visit the nearby old town and castle of Carcassonne on the Monday (more on which in the next post). We should have stayed longer as there is a lot to see in the area too… Camping Montolieu can be found at N43.29782 E2.22217 comes highly recommended and has a website at www.camping-de-montolieu.com